"Childhood Reading"

  As a child, my favorite animated character was Winnie the Pooh, so of course my favorite books were Winnie the Pooh. Now, there are three hundred and forty-seven Winnie the Pooh books and I'm certain that I did not read all of them, but I do have my favorites. The ones that are, at this point, almost falling apart because I read them so many times and even slept with them in my Winnie the Pooh tent and chair. Maybe way too much. My favorite out of every Winnie the Pooh book ever written was "Oh Bother, Someone is Afraid of the Dark." Winnie the Pooh goes to Piglet's house to spend the night and realizes that Piglet is afraid of the dark and what is in the darkness. Piglet thinks that there are Heffalumps under his bed, so Winnie the Pooh, with every bit of patience and understanding that he can muster, tries to convince Piglet that Heffalumps are not real and that the darkness can be beautiful. In the end, Winnie the Pooh and the friends that came to help, succeeded in helping piglet overcome his fear of darkness.

     All Winnie the Pooh books focus on childhood issues. This one was specifically about being afraid of the dark. I was terrified of the dark when I was very young. The only difference from Piglet's fear was that mine was of the closet and the boogeyman. I always thought that the boogeyman was going to pop out of the closet and take me away. My parents would read this book to me almost every night and on the nights that they were not able to read the book, I could not sleep. I would run into my parents room with tears rolling down my face begging them to read the story to me. This always melted their hearts and so they would roll out of bed and read the story. 

     "Oh Bother, Someone is Afraid of the Dark," was an inspiration and a motivation to control my fear of being in the dark. If Piglet overcame his fear of Heffalumps, then I could conquer my fear of the boogeyman. It is very surprising how much this book influenced me as a child. It not only helped me to defeat my fear of the darkness, but it also showed me that any fear that I have in life, I can overcome that fear with the help of friends, family, and maybe even a book.